


Case of You

by heretherebefics



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 04:37:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5403248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heretherebefics/pseuds/heretherebefics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt 13 for the River Song Ficathon: Library!River and Vastra on a conference call, bonus points for Strax for sandbar11(tumblr)</p>
<p>Two times Vastra and River talk on the desktop. Bit of Jenny and Strax.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Case of You

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from the Joni Mitchell song Case of You

“Hello miss.” The voice was cheery and seemed close to her left elbow as she came to and looked around the room she was now in, which looked considerably like the Taj Mahal. River took in the two women seated at the table, one a Silurian and the other human. And the potato; she wondered if this one was from the batch she offended.

“Good evening Professor. I am Madame Vastra. This is my wife Jenny and Strax, who works in our household.”

“Which is the Taj Mahal these days?”

“Of course not,” Vastra said with a smile. “Think of this as a conference call. We are under the effect of a soporific in London and you are exactly where you were when you fell asleep.”

“And all of this is…” River asked with a wave of her arms.

“Merely a desktop, formed from memory, for the trance state,” Vastra said smoothly. “Both Jenny and Strax have other matters to attend to so they will be waking shortly.”

“Why is your head so big, boy?” Strax said, staring at River.

She could hear Jenny talking quietly to him, reminding him that, as they had previously discussed, it was hair. “She is also not a boy,” Jenny said slightly louder.

“It’s alright,” River said lightly. “It is difficult to be a potato.”

Strax made a sound of disgust. “One day I shall destroy you for the glory of the Sontaran Empire.”

“You wouldn’t be the first to try,” she said cheerily as he faded out of the desktop. Once both Jenny and Strax were gone, River steepled her fingers in front of her. “I assume there is a reason I’m here.”

“There is,” Vastra said. “It is a delicate matter and one on which I believed you may be able to advise.”

“And what is the Doctor up to now?”

“Nothing.” Vastra practically spat the word out. “He is doing absolutely nothing. That is the problem.”

“He’s taken breaks before,” River said airily.

“He has been on a cloud above London, grieving,” Vastra said. “From my understanding, he lost Amelia Pond.”

“Yes, and Rory Williams,” River said sadly. She sighed before taking a deep breath, releasing it slowly. “And me, I suspect.”

“He would not say as much, but…” Vastra shifted in her chair. “Let us start over. I am Madame Vastra.”

“I remember you all from Demon’s Run. Twice even,” River gave Vastra a weak smile. “What would you like me to do? He does as he does when he’s ready. A good mystery might draw him out.”

“I have tried to no avail.”

“Perhaps you need a bigger mystery,” River said with a shrug. “I wouldn’t know what really. It has been a while.”

“He doesn’t….” Vastra said, attempting to be gentle.

“No, he doesn’t,” River replied, the words clipped. “So, how does this work? Obviously it is easier to draw yourselves in, or even someone within the universe. But how about me? I’m in a database.”

Vastra attempted to explain the details, but came up short. It wasn’t them who devised the technology, they were given information on how to lock on to her data code, which would pull her into the desktop when she slept. She wasn’t sure why the Doctor had the information and never used it, but thought it was best not to discuss it.

“And is there a way for me to communicate with you, should I want to begin a call?” River leaned into the table, staring at Vastra. “Or for that matter for you to contact me to inform me a call is needed?”

Vastra visualized a bundle of the unburnt candles and it appeared on the table. “Burn one and you will come to a desktop, burn another here with a letter and it will come to me. We should be able to reply to the data address.”

River took the candles and left them on the table at her elbow. “Until next time then.”

“Professsor, it was good to see you again,” Vastra said, extending a hand. “Though I wish it were under better circumstances.”

River shook her hand and gave her a small smile. “The Doctor’s allies rarely meet under positive circumstances.”

Vastra inclined her head and awoke back in her home.

~*~*~*~

The first letter appeared a few weeks later, inviting Vastra for tea. She chuckled as she gathered the candles before informing Jenny and Strax that she had a meeting with the Professor.

At the appointed time she went under, waking to the Taj Mahal again. “Professor,” she offered warmly to the woman currently pouring two cups of tea.

“Vastra.” River slide the cup to her and settled into her chair. “So, is he still on his cloud?”

“No, he came down. He’s searching for a girl.”

“Isn’t that always the way?” River sipped her tea and looked at the table.

The pair were silent for a moment, drinking their tea and observing the other.

“There is another issue we are investigating,” Vastra offered. “A thief.”

They talked for a time, finishing the first pot of tea before Vastra paused and looked River over. “Perhaps I have got ahead of myself. Our last meeting was urgent, so I ignored a matter of protocol. A test. One in which I will ask you questions and you will answer with one word only.”

River raised an eyebrow but inclined her head, accepting the challenge.

“The Doctor?”

“Man.”

“How did you meet him?”

“Death.”

“Whose death?”

“Both.”

“Why did you become a professor?”

“Passion.”

“Why did you marry him?”

“Love.”

“Why doesn’t he visit you?”

River's face became expressionless. “Endings.”

“Why would you help us with our cases?”

“Curiosity.”

“Would you do it all again?”

“Yes.” River smiled at Vastra and laughed, nodding. “Yes.”

“The Doctor lies?”

“Yes.”

“Do you?”

“Yes,” River replied with a devilish grin.

“Why should we trust you?”

“Shouldn’t." River shrugged, a small smile still present.

“But we do. I do. Why?”

“Doctor.”

“That’s not all. Why?”

River gave a delicate shrug. “Ponds.”

“No. Why do we trust River Song?”

“Dead.”

“No,” Vastra said firmly. “Why, above all else?”

River studied Vastra a moment. “Jenny.”

Vastra gave the women across the table a curious look, studying her face carefully. “Why Jenny?”

“Love.”

Vastra smiled softly. “Ah, yes, love. It changes things so much.”

“Painfully.”

“It can be, yes, but not always.” Vastra studied River’s face.

River forced a smile. “Bittersweet.”

“But you wouldn’t change it?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Sweet.”

Vastra smiled and extended her hand toward River, palm up. “And if you were to give him a message?”

River took Vastra’s hand and couldn’t resist running her thumb along her wrist; she smiled as she watched Vastra shudder and flush a darker green. “Companion.”

Vastra cleared her throat but didn’t move her hand. “Thank you Professor.”

“Any time. Did you find what you were looking for?”

“I did," Vastra said with a smile.

“And was it to your satisfaction?”

Vastra looked down at where their hands were still joined on the table. “Yes.” She drew her hand slowly away. “Our time is nearing its end. Shall I update you on the case in a few days’ time?”

“That would be lovely,” River said as she rose from the table. She walked around it and took both Vastra’s hands again and kissed both her cheeks, relishing the contact with someone not made of datacode. “Until next time.”

Vastra smiled and squeezed River’s hands. “Until next time my friend.”

River awoke in the world where everything was too white and too perfect. She left the small mound of wax from the candle on her bedside table, next to her diary, as she slipped out of her bed and changed clothes to bring the children home from their afternoon with the rest of her team. She had promised Charlotte that they could make cookies, and she kept her promises, even if her heart wasn’t quite in it anymore.


End file.
